WHO responds to health needs in Aleppo as situation deteriorates

Geneva, Dec 5 (IANS) As the conflict in Syria’s Aleppo intensifies, the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday said they are providing life-saving services and health supplies for thousands of people fleeing to safer areas, media reported.

According to WHO, more than 250,000 people in besieged eastern Aleppo city are facing dwindling supplies of food, medicine, water and fuel. All 10 of eastern Aleppo’s hospitals are closed or barely functional, depriving thousands of people of access to life-saving trauma care, major surgeries, and treatment for other serious health conditions, Xinhua news agency reported.

As the humanitarian situation deteriorates, an estimated 31,500 people have been internally displaced. In the western part of the city, where civilians are facing escalating violence, hospitals are overwhelmed with wounded patients.

WHO and health partners have sufficient supplies in western Aleppo to immediately support up to 80,000 people through fixed primary health care centres, mobile teams and life-saving interventions in supported hospitals.

From its hub in southern Turkey, WHO and partners are monitoring the displacement of people from eastern Aleppo to opposition-controlled areas in western rural Aleppo or Idlib. Health facilities are stocked with medical supplies, 10 mobile clinics are positioned near possible routes of movement, and ambulances are on standby to assist and transfer people who may require hospitalisation.

WHO and partners have also prepared detailed plans to evacuate the critically ill and injured out of eastern Aleppo and allow health staff and medical supplies in, once access is possible.